Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
